Let’s Go Anywhere


16 January 2015
Seattle, WA

We are setting off to start our new life in Melbourne, Australia. With us on this adventure is as little as we could imagine bringing to a new home halfway around the world. Two bags for each of us to last until our half container pod of remaining essentials (and some not so) are set to arrive 4-6 weeks after we do.

On a steel gray January morning we bid adieu to Alley 24, our home for nearly four years, tossed our two bags into the Subaru for the last time and drove up to Ballard to crash in our friend’s 4’ by 7’ TV room. This will be our cozy accommodations for four nights until our flight on the 20th. Sometime in that span we’ll be selling our trusty steed and further shedding some last possessions that missed the boat but can’t be justified in the checked luggage.

Now that we are unemployed, transient couch surfers the enormity of the move must be faced. No more second guessing the decision, no more dreamy discussions. Now just real, live logistics – an AirBnB, work visas, money transfers, international shipping manifestos, packing re-packing our luggage.

We’ll be there soon and once we arrive we’ll do our best to document our adventure here so feel free to follow along as we share the highlights of our life Down Under.


Arrival in a Strange Land


22 January 2015
Melbourne, Vic

A full twenty-four hours after leaving Seattle – via our scheduled Los Angeles stop and our unscheduled Sydney one – we arrived in Melbourne. Immigration and customs took a matter of minutes, either a nod to Australian efficiency or, possibly, apathy. Our journey to the taxi stand took us outside and into the heat, a very welcome 36C (97F) heat. As our cab headed into the city our fatigue and exhaustion melted away as our new home came into view out of the car windows. We had made it. Our new lives here were a blank canvass waiting for us to fill them with memories of a lifetime. This blew a strong wind into our sails; ready we were to see what this continent has to offer.

After a few wrong turns down some tricky one-way alleys, our driver found our AirBNB flat (apartment) and set us free. We dumped our luggage, changed into our bathers (swimsuits) and headed down to the St. Kilda beach to showcase the whitest skin in all of Oz (Australia), perhaps the Southern Hemisphere. In the mid-arvo (afternoon),our hunger pangs drove us from the beach to Fitzroy Street for a snack. We cashed in our gift certificate to Milk the Cow, a wine and cheese shop near the beach. All manner of fancy spreads and cuts were brought our way; all consumed in short order. We retired for our first night down under, but not before catching a few matches of The Tennis (The Australian Open) on The Tele (TV).


Settling In


23 January 2015
St. Kilda, Vic

On our first full day we dove right into the culture with a lazy cup of morning tea ([Twinnings] (https://twinings.com.au/), of course) on the deck. The cool, marine breeze of the early morning quickly gave way to summer heat. Inspired to experience this new place we took a long walk along the Bay Trail down to Point Ormond. This is a truly fantastic trail. Kilometers upon kilometers of pricey coast real estate dedicated solely to public use. We will undoubtedly spend considerable time moving to and fro on non-vehicular thoroughfare. Bikes must be purchased and soon. Andy is keen on rollerblades; Erin not so much so.

The walk back was warm; the heat, the sweat, the sun on our skin all so wonderful after the last few months in wet and cool Pacific Northwest. We live here now.


The Tennis


24 January 2015
Melbourne, Vic

For three weeks in late January and early February all eyes – in the tennis world at least – are on Melbourne and the Australian Open. Or, more affectionately referred to here on the ground as The Tennis . The cultural immersion program we had set for ourselves dictated that we attend.

On a gorgeous, sunny Saturday with temperatures near 30C (86F) we arrived early, as did the rest of the city. Tickets to the two main courts were sold out so we settled for ground passes. A ground pass allows access to all other venues but main courts, including the very large Hisense Arena. Our lack of planning did mean we’d miss Venus Williams’ match; however, our early arrival permitted a viewing of Serena practicing from up close, so not all was lost. It should not go unmentioned that the lines to enter the cultural events – the beer and wine gardens – stretched on to the far reaches of the grounds as Melbourne’s 20-somethings shook off last night’s hangover and queued up for another run at it. No prom or gala in America had anything on this scene.

Serena’s practice session sated our patriotic hunger; next on to Hisense for some live matches. Prior to the opening 11am match seats were plentiful. As rookies do, we made a rookie mistake and sat in the glaring sun, amazed at why such good seats were available when less optimal ones (shaded) were taken. A few hours later, the place was packed and we were sweating through our clothes, the full power of antipodal sun baking our pale northern bodies. We endured two hours of roasting to see the Spaniard, Muguruza, down Bacsinszky of Switzerland in a hard fought women’s singles match. A welcome relief as the shade enveloped us for match two. Here, the 8th ranked Montenegro-Canadian Milos Raonic used his 220+ km/h serve to breeze by the scrappy Benjamin Becker of Germany.

The grounds were throbbing full at this point and, needing food and drink, we called it a day and left for home. Our hunger and thirst pulled us into a pit stop at the Royal Croquet Club’s (RCC) off-site Aussie Open extravaganza…basically a massive beer garden with food trucks, croquet courts and a DJ spinning house music. Attendance was thin – it was early – but judging by the size of the beer stands it would become a righteous rave later in the evening. Still jet-lagged and a good decade older than the intended demographic we could not muster the resolve to go on a day-long drinking spree and, after a delicious snack and two Hahn Lights, made our way home. Cultural immersion complete for today.


Market Day


25 January 2015
Melbourne, Vic

The Queen Victoria Market is both a tourist trap full of fake Australian Outback hats and crocodile wallets as well as fully functional grocery store and mercantile. In what other seven hectare space upon the face of this earth can you buy a pallet of kangaroo pelts, powerful mystery crystals, Footie gear, a 55-gallon drum of raw almonds, Crest toothpaste, collectible dolls, antique hunting knives and a dozen fresh duck eggs? Any form of great quest can be outfitted from here; same too for fulfilling the needs of most eccentric among us. There is truly something for everyone. We bought none of the above, instead spending most our time investigating the widest variety of cured meats we’d ever seen.

[Erin] Being from Seattle, my expectations of coffee are high. Melbourne’s reputation as having a world class coffee culture proceeds it. In the three days we’ve been here, I’ve found it to be as promised and have been been gleefully sampling from a variety of new favorite, local cafes. Market Lane Coffee has a corner shop in the Queen Vic Market and since I wasn’t really sure what a flat white or a long black would end up as, I ordered a cappuccino like a pro, right up until I tried to pay for a $4 coffee with two 20 cent coins. (For some reason the smaller coins are larger amounts here). After Googling “long black” I decided it would be the closest to my Americano order back home and I can avoid looking like a complete dumbass next time. I am also adding this bit of information to save you all from Googling “long black” in the workplace.

With Market bags in hand and caffeine needs met, we took the tram back to our temporary home in St. Kilda for a sunny lunch on our patio. At some point we will stop acting like this is a vacation and get on with the details of finding a permanent dwelling, communicating with family, preparing for work, being responsible adults, but not quite yet…after all, we are still wearing fresh, clean clothes from our suitcases. Life doesn’t really start until laundry calls.


’Stralia Day


26 January 2015
Burwood, Vic

Australia Day celebrates the 1788 landing of the British First Fleet at Sydney Cove. We expected something like an Australian Fourth of July extravaganza. However, on account of souring public opinion over the ensuing treatment of the Aboriginal peoples, the reality of the holiday is something closer to a modest Columbus Day barbecue. As luck so had it, an old classmate of Erin’s had recently moved to Melbourne and had extended to us an invite to a afternoon party out in Wattle Park, east of the city. On the (not to scale) Melbourne tram map, it looked close enough. Ignorant of the speed, or lack thereof, of the tram system we jumped aboard the 16 Tram headed east then north through St. Kilda East, Balacava, Caulfield North, Malvern, Kooyong and then Hawthorn where we transferred to the 70 Tram whereupon we crawled through Hawthorn East, Camberwell, Surrey Hills and finally into Burwood, home to the Park of Wattle. Along the way we were overtaken by many cyclists, scooters, rickshaws, jitneys, wheelchairs, mums with prams, stray dogs; really anything wheeled or anyone particularly fleet of foot was bound to pass us eventually.

Ninety or so minutes later we arrived. The beer that we purchased at the beginning of our journey was now fully the temperature of the ambient air. The small fete was enjoyable, a good chance to meet some local people and test our new land’s ability to throw a bash. Marooned out here in the burbs, the only economically sensible thing to do was to ride the same slow pony back to town…at least we knew what to expect this time. We rewarded ourselves for our arduous travels with some of the world’s greatest frozen yogurt, Yo-Chi. To walk off these excess calories, we ambled down to the beach to watch the sun dip below the gentle waves of Port Phillip Bay.


Back to Work


27 January 2015
University of Melbourne, Vic

[Andy] Eventually, the fun had to end. I was down here for a job after all. Mind you I wasn’t headed to the salt mines or anything resembling difficult physical labor, but coming back to a schedule and being responsible to an employer was an unwelcome change nonetheless.

I arrived to the sparkling new Melbourne School of Design (MSD) building and my 9:30 appointment with the department’s lowest ranking human resources official to find that my name was not ‘in the system’. As a result, I could not be granted my ID card, login information, email, etc. Really anything that would permit me to do any actual work, administrative or otherwise. I was, however, awarded my complimentary kitchen set with a tea mug of a color of my choosing. Now this is the warm welcome I had been expecting. Editor’s Note from the Future: This was a foreshadow of the general competence and priorities of the department.

Additionally, due to some scheduling issues, there is a squatter in my current office for the next few weeks. I have been set up with with a temporary work space in a large group meeting-type room (with adequate space for my tea set). It is comfortable enough and my office mates – a pair of ebony mannequins of differing completeness – are quiet, albeit a bit weird.

By midday I was starting to wonder if I actually had a job here, but in wandering the halls I did locate a door with my name on it…so at least someone was expecting me. With any luck tomorrow I’ll be able to commence my tenure at the University. For now, I’m just a visitor stuck in a room with mannequins busy balancing his spoon on his nose while shotgunning lukewarm, free tea. Oh yeah, and every time I leave the room to go to the bathroom I need to place a chair in the door lest it close behind me and lock me out.


Beach Boxes


30 January 2015
Brighton, Vic

When not outside basking in the glorious January weather, we are busy on Domain.com.au searching for a place to live. Visiting these homes means walking or taking the trams/trains to different neighborhoods around the city until we are exhausted or sunburned, often both. Our standard operating procedure once in such a condition is to find refuge and relief in a gelato or frozen yogurt shop. I dare you to judge us.

Recently we found ourselves in Brighton touring a home which was wonderful but also for which we didn’t really have the budget to live in. Brighton is a beautiful and bougie location just inland from a sparkling white beach. Like a crow drawn to shiny objects, Erin gravitates towards bright colors and patterns. Being this close, we made time to visit to the famous Brighton Beach Bathing Boxes. Our stay was no short affair.

Sticking our toes in the sand and watching the tourists (ourselves not included; we are locals after all) fumbled with self-sticks was a needed distraction from the stress of finding a home. The rental process here is, well, odd. Open houses or inspections, as they are referred to, are 15 minute affairs, and unfurnished rentals don’t come with a washer/dryer, dishwasher or refrigerator unless you are lucky. As a result, the next time we move, we will be the proud owners of a bunch of big ass appliances. Two of the houses that we are interested in have inspection times tomorrow, unwittingly with overlapping 15 minute periods and across town from one another. We will divide and conquer, and hopefully trust the other’s judgment…but for now, we worry not about this and relax on the beach dreaming of our next cool, sugary treat.


In Search of a Home


1 February 2015
St. Kilda, Vic

As the calendar turned to February we remain vagabonds, living off of takeout at our small, but comfortable AirBnB in the heart of St. Kilda. We recently put in a rental application for a small brick home in charming Albert Park. There are no guarantees here in this ‘lottery for a rental home’ system as it is not clear what merits or perhaps roll of a dice determine whether or not we’ll enjoy the luxury of paying a lot of money for a quaint living space. This home is one of hundreds that we’ve looked at online and one of a handful that we’ve inspected and applied for. We feel like we have a good chance here because it isn’t the in the hip, cool neighborhoods north of the city, but in a quieter, family-ish area to the south. All the better for us as we prefer beaches and parks to bars and brunches anyways.

This process has been, well, exhausting. Our past weekend consisted mostly of jumping on and off various trams to schlep around to far-flung areas of the city in order to inspect homes or check out new neighborhoods. At some of the more glamorously located places, the crowds are insane; over 50 people showed up to a house in Fitzroy on Saturday morning. All this bandying about has its benefits – we stumbled on a wild Chinese New Year celebration, have found some of the city’s best architecture, sampled even more frozen yogurt and gelato shops and even procured Erin her first (likely of many) Australian meat pies. We know some tram routes by heart and now have a pretty good sense of what is overpriced. All this local knowledge should also help Andy in the classroom where his first day of teaching is soon approaching.


Not So Super Bowl


2 February 2015
Prahran, Vic

It was 9am Monday morning and we were headed not to work or to a house showing but, instead, to a pub. A friend from Seattle of a friend from Seattle had invited us out to the College Lawn Hotel in the Prahran neighborhood for the Super Bowl. Entrance was pricey, but we did get all you could drink beers and wines and a wide variety of free bar foods. This is the sort of spectacle we had expected given all of our study about our new land suggested that the Aussies were “mad for sport.” Upon arrival, we noticed the 12th man flag in the window. We had made a good choice.

The place filled quickly and there were about 200 people jammed in by the time the game started. The College Lawn is a big place with numerous outdoor beer gardens, separate rooms and bars, so it never really felt too crowded. I’d guess it was about 50% Seahawks fans, 30% Patriots fans, 10% random NFL jerseys (Barry Sanders, Darrelle Revis and Mark Chmura…ok, no Mark Chmura) with the balance made up of about 20 odd Aussie dudes who didn’t care much for the game, but couldn’t seem to pass up all-you-could drink event on a Monday morning.

We met about a dozen people from Seattle or the surrounding area, including one ex-Seattleite whose name was, I kid you not, Erin Krause. The people and the atmosphere were great, the beer was good and the food was, well, filling. We’ll stop there as nothing really needs to be said about the game itself….at least we had an ample selection of decent Australian microbrews (and Heineken) to kill the pain.


How Ya Goin


4 February 2015
Albert Park, Vic

After many tours, followup emails and countless hours scouring online listings, we finally secured a place to live. It is a wee Victorian cottage in a neighborhood called Albert Park. It is a quaint, but upscale little area with adequate, but not hip, amenities. Importantly is only a walk or short bike ride to the beach and a direct tram ride away from the University and downtown Melbourne. We are undoubtedly bringing down the median income for the area. We get the keys on Friday, so we will share more later in the week about the house.

[Erin] Today, I focused on some early neighborhood reconnaissance. Near our house (feels weird to say this) is another open air market, the South Melbourne Market. Compared to the Victoria Market we visited last week, this market is much smaller, but it still has amazing variety and better prices. It is less catered to the tourists and more toward locals looking for their groceries, staple items and delicious meals. Specialty shops abound, like the Tea Drop an entire booth dedicated to exotic and high end teas. It has Easter egg-colored canisters stacked so high, it necessitated a ladder to reach them. And that bookstore-style ladder is not just some trendy design detail, my own order required its use.

Picking my way slowly stall by stall through the market, I continued to come across the same issue we’ve both have had for the past two weeks of meeting and greeting friendly Aussies. Instead of the “G’day” that everyone in America expects Australians to say, we almost always get some slurred version of ‘How ya goin’ or ‘How’re ya going?’ This obviously means ‘Hi, How are you doing?’, and so we usually answer ‘Good’, but every single time there is an urge to answer the question of where I’m going or how I got here, By tram? St. Kilda? I walked?

Knowing that we’d soon be leaving our St.Kilda apartment we spent our evening with a dinner at Babu Ji a fashionable Indian restaurant just down the street. For a bit more than the cost of standard meal, the quality was outstanding. Some of most unique Indian flavors we each have ever tasted. We are quite grateful that our new home is just a short tram ride away from this gem. To aid in the digestion of this large meal, we concluded with a nice long walk along St.Kilda Beach. Our home beach for just a few more days, until we relocated a mile or so to the west.


Ikea-a-thon


8-9 February 2015
Richmond, Vic

We now have a house. It is filled with exactly nothing as all we own here are the bags we brought on the plane (and the various suncreens Andy has hoarded in the past two weeks) and those are still at the AirBnB we have for a few more days. So we went shopping. Furniture shopping – the seventh level of hell for one of us. In fact, Andy might prefer any of the following over furniture shopping: going to the dentist, watching period-piece dramas and line dancing. All of this shopping was, however, book-ended by two outdoor festival-type events and fun pit stops along the way – which is probably why we got through it in one piece. And, not only does Andy now know the difference between a left and right chaise lounge but he can spot pebble weave upholstery from 50 meters out….

All of the things that we couldn’t physically carry out of the store will be delivered to our home sometime in the next week. With any luck our number of days of sleeping on the floor will be exactly zero.

Overall, our weekend went something like this:

  • (Fri) South Melbourne Market night market complete with delicious street paella.

  • (Sat) Some suburban Ikea and Domain Housewares Mall (think Ron Swanson’s personal hell).

  • (Sun AM) West Elm, then urban Ikea (yes, multiple Ikeas in a weekend)

  • (Sun PM) The St. Kilda Festival with 300,000 of our fellow Melburnians…right in our back yard.


Moving In


12 February 2015
Albert Park, Vic

This entire blog post could be about nothing more than the series of minor failures that we have had in the past week while moving into our new home. Instead, we will channel the positive and enlighten you with the few, but crucial wins we have had secured.

To begin, we are now the proud owners of a complete set of ‘white goods’ – washing machine, dryer, and refrigerator. True adults are we. Once past the initial annoyance of knowing that we would have to not only buy these and but then also move them around to each place we will rent in the city we have become quite attached to them. Not so far as to name them, though. Not yet.

As our shipping crate of things – some necessary and others not – has been delayed until late March, we are trying to get by living minimally until then. While temporarily living with ‘just the essentials’ seems simple enough, it really isn’t as fun as it sounds to cook a full meal in one pot, or share one towel or sleep on a bed frame without the proper slats, therefore folding the mattress like a burrito, (one of many IKEA fails). To remedy this, Erin broke down and just started buying things we needed. As satisfying as it felt to start filling up the house, without a car, she was the girl walking a mile and a half with a stainless steel garbage can balanced on her head, and then back a mile and a half to return it when she realized it didn’t work with a plastic bag since, per the shopkeeper, you were just supposed to rinse out the plastic liner each time (?). Okay, so in the end we did share some of the fails; some things are too good to keep to oneself.

Back in the win column, we also bought bikes this week. This affair took an entire afternoon at 99 Bikesbut we ended up with two beautiful road bikes at a bargain price as well as finding ourselves a new and very Lithuanian friend. Test riding the bikes was a little horrific at first since biking on the wrong side of the road is only slightly less jarring than driving on the wrong side, but we caught on quick. It took a little convincing our friend that Erin wasn’t completely helpless on a bike, and in the end we both walked away with men’s bikes. Erin was informed this men’s bike would fit her fine due to her “gentlemen’s shoulders”. We also learned more than we wanted to know about a recent crime epidemic in Footscray, the state of immigration politics in Australia and tips for maintaining proper brake cable tightness.

Our new wheels allowed us to explore farther and faster than before. This offered a needed break from hours of Ikea instruction following. It is also provided much needed practice at operating on the opposite side of street as we will, eventually, find ourselves driving down here.


A Downtown Walkabout


14 February 2015
Melbourne, Vic

To celebrate St. Valentine (Valentino in the large Italian sector of Melbourne) we explored our city – a long date filled with many cultural institutions and ice creams. We began with a trip to the State Library and concluded at Federation Square, connecting these two iconic places via the least efficient and most interesting route possible. Down alleyways and up lanes, along the Yarra River walk and through a Chinese New Year’s festival. Erin paused to capture more photos of activated streetscapes and sidewalk cafes than Andy cared to, but this city is proving to be a designer’s dream and she can’t help but get swept up in it.

Over the past few weeks, Erin has spent considerable time in cafes stealing wi-fi and drinking coffee with Melburnians. She’s become familiar with the standard breakfast that is ordered to accompany a morning coffee. The usual is a granola-based dish (occasionally bircher) with yogurt and some take on fruit compote. Now that we have acquired a pot for our kitchen, she has decided she should start making this simple breakfast dish at home instead of eating out so much. We are in the middle of summer, and all the markets are selling stone fruit for crazy sales, so recently she lugged home 2 kilos of it – which is, as she learned, considerably more than two pounds and not that easy to carry home. When Andy came home to a fruit poaching factory and asked what I was making, he heard ‘Truman Capote’ instead of ‘fruit compote’, so now every morning for breakfast, I sit down to a small, but satisfying bowl of yogurt and Truman compote.


A Slice of Home


21 February 2015
Melbourne, Vic

In need of a vacuum, a year’s worth of toilet paper, three liters of barbecue sauce, a kilo and half of haloumi and several other bulk items that can only be moved with a pallet jack, we took a short tram ride to Costco Australia, conveniently located just north of downtown Melbourne. Rumor has it that the Melburnians were so pleased with the arrival of the big ‘C’ that they built a Ferris wheel in the parking lot.

It was hot; 37C to be exact, which is about 99F if you are a Yank. Inside of Costco – a Costco nearly identical in shape, layout, color and smell to those back home – was a comfortable 20 degrees. There were Kirkland signs everywhere, large families moving very slowly down every aisle and the pervasive odor (aroma?) of grilled meats. We trolled the samples; Erin hitting up the Jelly Belly lady more times than is likely allowed. Our cart swelled, we had purchased enough necessities that we had to catch a cab home as schlepping all of our goods on the tram would have been poor form. It was oddly comforting (or maybe no so oddly) to be in a place so familiar so far from home. We’ll definitely make this a monthly outing…if for no other reason than to buy affordable American whiskey.

In the afternoon, we took a short walk to the Optus store to update our cell phone plans. On the way home we were caught in a very heavy 15-minute downpour. The sun was shining, the wind howling and massive raindrops pummeled the sidewalk. It passed, but the heat did not abate so we grabbed some cheap beers and headed to the beach for sunset. Sundowners on the beach just a ten minute walk from home. This is a life one can get used to.


Furniture and F1


25 February 2015
Albert Park, Vic

It was a big week for us. We bought a grill (barbie), our couch and desk were delivered (installed incorrectly) and our internet was finally installed (with speeds near that of Andy’s early 2000s dorm room…). After tethering our cell phones to our computers in order to get work done and sitting on the floor for 2 weeks, this was a big improvement. That said, we are coming around to the minimalist approach. Here, here, Marie Kondo. By the time our shipping crate arrives – now scheduled for early April – we may wonder why we thought we needed all the stuff we brought from Seattle. We will also have to find a place for our bikes which are currently stored in our second bedroom with all of the giant boxes from our appliances. Our recycling bin is small so each week Erin carefully cuts down the huge boxes into smaller pieces to jam into the tiny bin. We may have emptied that room out by mid-April, it will be tight. We’ve considered an illegal bonfire in the middle of street some night, but the Aussies as a whole are a bit jumpy about potential bush fires.

We are riding our bikes every day and it almost feels OK to be riding on the wrong (left) side of the road. After we moved in to the neighborhood we realized that the Melbourne Grand Prix course takes up residence here as well every March. Although the races don’t actually start until the 12th of March, the course has been under construction since we have been here. The course is a loop road around Albert Park Lake and until they fully shut the road down our new evening ritual is to take laps around the course. It is actually quite fun whipping around the F1 course with no cars on it. Apparently it is going to be incredibly loud in our little village, but it seems like it will be entertaining. A lady in Erin’s boxing class said she heads to the coast every year at this time since the neighborhood becomes “overrun with Bogans” (Australian term for ‘redneck’).


A Walk in the City, A Walk in the Bush


2 March 2015
Melbourne + Belgrave, Vic

We are getting to know our new city bit by bit and day by day. Whether by suggestions from new friends, places we have read about on local websites or curiosities stumbled upon while lost, we end up on weekly field trips to discover little city gems.

Whilst wandering the city, one of the most pleasant surprises is volume and diversity of street art in Melbourne. This weekend we decided to specifically search out some of the downtown alleys and lanes that have been transformed to destinations. While at first we were reminded of the Gum Wall in Pike Place Market – the alleys smelled appropriately of warm garbage and small packs of people were milling around and taking pictures – the colorful and character-filled alleys won us over and our hunt for the best hidden murals took most of the afternoon.

Before we moved here, we made it a priority each weekend get out of the city to hike or camp. We realized it had been five weeks of living in Melbourne and we hadn’t gotten out of town so we decided to take the train 1.5 hours east to the end of the line and spend some time hiking in the Dandendong Ranges National Park. The Ranges are hills, not mountains, but no matter, nature is nature. We hiked through massive Eucalyptus forests and other than an unruly and incredibly loud swarm of parrots, we didn’t run into any wildlife, poisonous or otherwise. The smell of the Eucalyptus forests are intoxicating; an aroma that will no doubt stick with us for the rest of our days. Erin did see a small red ant on Andy’s back on the walk back to the train station which she immediately overreacted to and yelled “Fire Ant!” before swatting at repeatedly. The veracity of the ant sighting remains in doubt by one of our party.


Classroom Debut


8 March 2015
Parkville, Vic

[Andy] The students returned to campus this week, which meant the peacefulness I had been enjoying at work was suddenly shattered. It was easy to forget what a scene a thriving 40,000 student campus could become. Added to this was the fact that we were housed in a brand new building, the likes of which the students hadn’t seen yet, so much gawking, pointing and general malaise in way-finding occurred. The start of the school year also meant that I had to teach.

In terms of week one, well, I survived. My class lost a few minutes being locked out of our room and I undoubtedly used a number of American terms that they have no idea the meaning of. To date, no official complaints were lodged with administration. We’ll see how many students show up this coming week. While the students were focused on finding their classes, I sneaked away one afternoon to read in the sun on the surprisingly empty cricket grounds, enjoying the open spaces far from the teeming masses.

After we accepted the job here and realized we would be moving to Melbourne, we spent a good bit of time poking around on Google Earth to check out our new city. Once we came upon the small town of Ferntree Gully, we knew we had to pay it a visit. I mean, it just sounds mystical, right? The weather on Saturday was cloudy, but pleasant so we hopped a train bound for this – assumed to be – magical place.

The town is located at the edge of the Dandenong Ranges National Park, and hiking is the main attraction. While it wasn’t the easiest place to get into, the hike proved quite steep, challenging and full of massive eucalyptus (gum) trees and very little undergrowth. A really nice, though busy, place for an afternoon hike. Also, today we learned that there is an Upper (but no lower) Ferntree Gully; the Upper also containing a chocolate factory.

On Sunday morning, we went for a short bike ride along the beach, cleaned up the back yard and then, when the sun came out, went back to the beach to relax. We caught the end of a co-ed beach volleyball tournament – that with a bit of practice – we figured we could have been competitive in. Next year….

We are settling in to a rhythm, a life less driven by hectic home searching and appliance shopping and more on finding a calmer, healthier routine than we had back in the States.


Experimental Cooking


18 March 2015
Parkville, Vic

[Erin] Growing up, whenever my mom would try a meal outside of her wheelhouse, she would always preface the meal with the descriptive warning that it was ‘experimental’. Carrying this over into my adult life, I have begun to refer to Andy’s enthusiastic use of flavors and discretionary attention to recipes as ‘experimental cooking’ and now whenever we try something new, it gets the ‘experimental’ disclaimer.

Food is culture. And there are a lot of new flavors in Melbourne for us to audition. Lamb shows up in places it would never been seen in the U.S. There is a new palette of seafood and an incredible amount of beetroot. Some foods just have different names, like Capsicums (bell peppers), Lollies (sweets), PawPaw (Papaya), hundreds and thousands (candy sprinkles). When I go to the market, I often spend a lot of time wandering around finding new things to try out in recipes. The latest experiment involved a can of Duck Fat I found at the market. Although this sounds absolutely disgusting, and honestly doesn’t look much better, I roasted baby potatoes and sage with duck fat and it was delicious. I am pretty sure we will always be fully stocked with a gross little can of duck fat in our pantry from now on.

We remain without our shipment of goods and I refuse to buy a bunch of kitchen tools/dishes since we have all of our stuff ‘on-the-way’, we are rolling with just the essentials right now. This means 1 pot, 1 pitcher, 2 sets of cutlery, 2 plates/bowls and a variety of Shark Reef Knives that we got for Christmas and had to check in our baggage. Remarkably, one can do a lot with one pot. Just today with said pot, I made tea, poached two eggs, toasted some pepitas, trapped a large bee-fly and transported it outside, cooked a chili pork ragu, and cooked and then roasted a cheesy polenta. Of course this usually means it takes twice the amount of time that any normal cooking process might take, but it usually gives me twice the satisfaction. Plus, Australia is an island and everyone here is on some form of Island time…might as well join the crowd.

Today’s Experiment: Chili Pork Ragu over Cheesy Polenta and Kale Salad with Fennel and Apple.

In adventure news, we rigged a setup to allow our hammock in the backyard (garden) and took a nice long bike ride down the Yarra River Trail, stopping only ‘intermittently’ to photograph interesting landscape design.


Mornington, Day 1


20 March 2015
Mornington Peninsula, Vic

For Erin’s upcoming birthday we decided to finally leave the comforts of the big city and venture into rural Victoria – the Mornington Peninsula to be precise. To do so meant renting a car and driving. Not just any driving, but driving on the left hand side of the road…or basically unlearning everything that you’ve been consciously (and sometimes not so) doing for the past 15-20 years.

We picked up our small Toyota at 9am on Friday morning, convincing conned the salesman into believing that we knew what we were doing, entered the car on the correct side and managed to get out of the rental lot without hitting anything or anyone. The first 15 minutes are weird. It is very hard to estimate the extents of your vehicle and we took a slow, circuitous route home to pick up our luggage and then were off. The next 45 minutes are a bit less weird and finally after about an hour or so of driving it starts to feel somewhat natural.

Out of the city, we continued on the Nepean highway to the little town of Mornington and stopped for breakfast. From there we took the bay side road all the way to the Point Nepean National Park. The parking lot was located in the old hospital and quarantine grounds that were used to offload passengers from British ships and stop the spread of typhus or whatever other diseases (not including bad taste and worse cooking) the Brits were bringing this way. From there, we hiked the coast all the way to the end of the Peninsula and the former Fort Nepean. Along the way we explored many of the bunkers, though for fear of snakes and poisonous spiders elected to remain on the exterior. The threat of unexploded ordnance, however, couldn’t quite keep our adventurous spirits in check.

We hiked the road on the way back from the Fort and ran into our first large native monotreme, an echidna. Despite Erin’s attempts to get a selfie with our new friend, he remained completely oblivious to us and cared only about sucking ants up out of the ground.

After our hike, we drove down to the Cape Schanck lighthouse, our intended accommodation for the evening. Upon arrival, we were notified that they were full and that they had not received our reservation details from Expedia. After 90 minutes of phone calls to various parties we were able to wrangle a refund from Expedia (or so we’ve been promised). Each side blamed the other and tried to set us up elsewhere, but we just took the money and ran. Most places were full on a Friday night but we were able to land a room at the Lindenderry Farm and Winery up on Red Hill. We slept comfortably after a long day of beach hikes, driving and phone calls with various customer service representatives…the latter being the most exhausting.

This was our first trip out to the open ocean (as Melbourne is on Port Philip Bay) and it is every bit as wild, windy and rugged as imagined. Oh, and also quite beautiful.


Mornington, Day 2


21 March 2015
Mornington Peninsula, Vic

Our last minute lodging at the Lindenderry Farm and Winery proved restful and we woke before sunrise to head to the Mornington Peninsula Hot Springs. With over twenty mineral pools to dip and soak in, we thought it would be the perfect morning activity. As the first people through the door, we hustled up the hill to stake our claim in the aptly named Hilltop pool. Doing so enabled us to catch sunrise with a 360-degree view all to ourselves. As other guests started to show up to the best pool in the land, we made our way down the hill to try out each of the different mineral pools.

Erin loves lighthouses. There is something romantically lonely and tragic about them and they are always anchored on some patch of wild coastline like a brave little pawn. The Cape Schanck Lighthouse was no different, and even though we weren’t able to spend the night there as planned…we did return today to hike along the coastal trails of the National Park. Although the weather was hot and sunny, the wind made the temperature feel quite brisk, and after walking down the many stairs from lighthouse, we tucked in to this little cove and stretched out on the warm rocks before the steep hike back up the cliffs.

We spent the remainder of the day driving along the coast from small town to small town. We stopped at a beach outside of Flinders to watch the surf competition that was in progress and next, in the town of Sorrento, at the sports fields to watch an ongoing game of Australian Rules Football. We had apparently parked in the equivalent of the endzone and our rental card got hit a few times by the ball. We probably could not have been less obvious as outsiders if we been sprinting around draped in a house-sized American flag. To finish the day, we met up with some of our new friends at a particularly photogenic beach cove in the town of Portsea for ‘sun-downers’. With our new mates, local wine and our toes buried in the sand, we toasted to the weekend.


Bachelor Life


31 March 2015
Albert Park, Vic

[Andy] A few weeks ago, you heard about Erin’s daily routine of one-pot cooking, sun-bathing and trips to the market. With Erin in Hawaii and me living the bachelor life, I’ll provide some insight into my own daily exploits. I teach on Tuesday and generally have meetings, class prep and other administrative duties … (click for more).


Botanical Gardens


5 April 2015
Melbourne, Vic

The city is a ghost town. It is Easter weekend, a national holiday, and it would appear that most of our neighborhood and a fair bit of the city are off for a final summer’s weekend someplace else. That included the shop owners and retail clerks. As everything was closed up tight, we walked to the … (click for more).


Grampians National Park


6-7 April 2015
Halls Gap, Vic

Toward our effort to explore our new state of Victoria, we took a quick two-day trip out for some bushwalking in the Grampians National Park. The Grampians Mountain Range, or Gariwerd as known to the local Aboriginals, is a photogenic sandstone range that runs north-south cutting through the Victorian plains. … (click for more).


Fall and Footy


16-18 April 2015
Melbourne, Vic

Fall is definitely here, as the non-indigenous, deciduous trees are all beginning to drop their leaves. After a lifetime in the Northern Hemisphere, it is really hard to condition yourself to think of April as being fall. We’ve both continually been referring to the upcoming months as ‘summer’, though they’ll be anything but as our local friends are keen to remind us. People here have assured us … (click for more).


Farm Life


1-3 May 2015
Ballarat, Vic

This weekend we were invited out to visit our friends Brooke and Steve who are ‘farmsitting’ for a month out in the country. The farm is just outside of the town of Ballarat and although it seemed a world away from the city, it only took about an hour’s drive when we left midday Friday. After an afternoon tour of the farm, we drove into Ballarat to stock up on groceries and drinks. Prior to the first gold strike, Ballarat was … (click for more).


A Day of Culture


10 May 2015
Melbourne, Vic

Our well-laid plans to hike in the mountains east of the city were dashed due to storms. We pivoted and instead embarked on an urban hike to try to get to know our city a little better. Andy kept on calling this a ‘Day of Culture’ but since I am writing this blog post, I will note that a ‘Day of walking really far’ would have been just as apt. From our home in Albert Park, we trekked first to the National Gallery of … (click for more).


Sunshine Coast


23 May 2015
Alexandra Headlands, Vic

As an early birthday present, Erin planned a short trip for us to Noosa and the Sunshine Coast – a set of beachfront communities about an hour north of Brisbane. We caught a Thursday afternoon flight out of Melbourne, which was quite bumpy due to the developing thunderstorms along coast. As we approached the landing, our pilots hit the gas and pulled out of it a few moments before impact and then circled … (click for more).


Noosa


25 May 2015
Noosa, Qld

We left our Alexandra Heads accommodation early on the slow bus bound for Noosa. The trip – cheap and comfortable – follows the windy road all up the coast. We stopped every ½ mile or so to pick up a barefooted surfer or two along the way. Scenic, slow and crowded by the time we arrived in downtown Noosa. Noosa Heads is a very quaint, … (click for more).


A Long Awaited Delivery


28 May 2015
Albert Park, Vic

After five months at sea – well more like two months at sea and three months in customs and port storage facilities – our shipment of household goods finally arrived. And just 72 hours prior to our flights back to the U.S. for the month of June. The boxes looked like they had been kicked, dragged and thrown the entire 8,186 miles, but miraculously nothing, minus … (click for more).


Winter in Melbourne


27 June 2015
Albert Park, Vic

[Andy] I returned from our hectic U.S. trip to depths of Melbourne winter. A calm and sunny 55 degrees. As a native of the upper Midwest I remember late spring/early summer days that weren’t this nice. Yet, a good portion of the locals took the opportunity to don their North Face puffy jackets and knit, woolen hats. Perhaps overkill, but I do love the smell of the wood fireplaces burning in our … (click for more).


Melbourne from the Sky


20 July 2015
Melbourne, Vic

[Erin] I flew back to Melbourne on July 8th, prepared to keep myself busy with work until Andy got back on the 26th. One Cryptolock Virus, one trans-Pacific voyage for my computer and one panic attack later I found myself without a laptop, feeling completely un-tethered from society. The only silver lining of sending my laptop back to the States for resurrection was that with the … (click for more).


Heide Art Museum


22 July 2015
Heidelberg, Vic

[Erin] Earlier this week, on a day that promised to have 0% chance of rain, I took a bike ride out of town to visit the Heide Museum of Modern Art. A 20 kilometer bike ride from the city, the Heide sits within 15 acres of parklands. The land was purchased by John and Sunday Reed in 1934. And what was initially their home of a farm house, (Heide I) and kitchen … (click for more).


Blind Date


10 August 2015
Frankston, Vic

One perk of moving to a large, international city is that many of our friends, family and colleagues have connections here in Melbourne. As a result, from time to time we get set up for, what could only be called, blind dates. This Sunday was such an occasion. One of Erin’s childhood friends had studied in New Zealand and knew a girl who happened to be living … (click for more).


Geelong


25 August 2015
Geelong, Vic

We each had a busy past week preparing for new adventures; Andy with baseball tryouts for the Port Melbourne Mariners, (serendipitously enough our local team), and me with my first teaching experience at the University. I was hired as a teaching assistant, or a Tutor as they are referred to here, for a Site Planning and Design studio through the University Landscape Architecture program. … (click for more).


Footy Friday


5 September 2015
Melbourne, Vic

Eric arrived today, our first visitor from back home. For his first full day, we hit up the South Melbourne Market for a lunch of Yum Cha (Dim Sum), Oysters and Meat Pies. We then took a long, leisurely stroll into downtown, winding through Melbourne’s famous alleyways, eventually grabbing a few beers from a small café. There were many choices of alleyway bars, but we were lured in by the large Italian man who smelled strongly of coconut and vanilla and who offered us … (click for more).


Great Ocean Road, Day 1


6 September 2015
Apollo Bay, Vic

The offer of a free upgrade at the rental car office is always a good omen for a road trip. The ‘upgrade’, in this case, meant getting handed the keys to metallic green Holden Commodore Sport Edition. If you are anything other than an Aussie or absolute car wonk, you probably have never heard of Holden. It is an oft-maligned domestic brand. Think Pontiac not Cadillac. Pulling out the Avis garage, strange noises … (click for more).


Great Ocean Road, Day 2


7 September 2015
Warrnambool, Vic

[Erin] We began day 2 of our Great Ocean Road trip in search of more koalas. Slow and seemingly high, these marsupials are 70% shanks, 20% ears and 100% adorable. My maths don’t add up, but the description should at least give you an overall understanding of the koala bear cuteness. We understood the ‘bear’ descriptor after seeing these little guys in action (or inaction), but I would probably characterize them as part Ewok, part hamster. … (click for more).


Heide Sculpture Garden


10 September 2015
Bulleen, Vic

Eric and Erin ventured out to the Heide Museum of Modern Art for a late lunch in the museum’s café and then toured the massive sculpture garden discussing which pieces we liked best. After hearing “I could make that” one too many times from Eric, they both settled on the airy and geometric volume create out of welded rebar as the top … (click for more).


Mornington Day Trip


12 September 2015
Portsea, Vic

The weather called for 0% chance of rain so we decided to drive down to the Mornington Peninsula for the day. Naturally it started raining on us as we reached our first stop at the Cranbourne Royal Botanical Gardens. These gardens were magnificent. We can only imagine that the designers that got to work on this job were in heaven. Within the featured Australian Garden, there were twenty or so individual … (click for more).


And they are off…


14 September 2015
Flemington, Vic

Horse racing in Victoria still maintains a measure of cultural and social importance. Or, in other words, still offers members of polite society a chance to dress up and remind themselves that they are still members of polite society. The horses themselves are a bit of an afterthought. Being two immigrants and a tourist, we first checked the style guide – no jodhpurs, cravats, … (click for more).


Last Hurrah (for Eric)


16 September 2015
Halls Gap, Vic

Eric’s time with us was quickly coming to an end. A successful first time for us hosting a fellow Yank. With the glorious spring weather, we snuck in one last little trip – a one night excursion to the Grampians – before Eric was set to return to America. We had been to the Grampians before but still had plenty to explore. … (click for more).


Perth, then North


3-4 October 2015
Perth(ish), Western Australia

While our west coast trip was meant to get us out of the city, we did dedicate a morning to a small walkabout in central Perth. It is a nice city, complete with multiple pedestrian zones, flashy new buildings and all the requisite retail chains, high end restaurants and tourist shops. And when we say ‘nice’, we are hinting at … (click for more).


Rotto


4 October 2015
Rottnest Island, Western Australia

While most of Australia was making its way to Melbourne to watch the Australian Football League Grand Finals, (the Aussie Superbowl), we were happily tucked into our small AirBnB in Fremantle, a suburb of Perth. After an evening of exploring town we booked morning tickets on the boat to … (click for more).


The Race that Stops a Nation


4 November 2015
Melbourne, Victoria

Tuesday was Melbourne Cup Day. It is the biggest race day of the 8-day Spring Carnival and a public holiday for all, except us lowly University employees. This may seem a bit excessive for a horse race, but this is a country where gambling is as much of … (click for more).


Things I’m Loving about Melbourne


17 November 2015
Melbourne, Victoria

ART & DESIGN EVERYWHERE

From government commissioned graffiti to land sculptures to temporary installations, this city supports art that will amaze you and engage you. Also, I’m pretty sure it is someone’s full time job to cover our neighborhood sidewalks with cheery chalk drawings. … (click for more).


 

by Andy Krause

andy@andykrause.com